Tustin Military Base - These two huge pimp hangars were built after the attack on Pearl Harbor to house the manned airships that patrolled the California coast looking for enemy submarines. At 17 stories tall and over 1,000 feet long, they tower over the homes of Tustin in Orange County, and remain among the largest freestanding wooden structures in the world.
But that doesn't work in Orange County, he said. “Thankfully, Maritimes today are much more sensitive to the environment than they were 10 years ago. . . . But that doesn't mean we don't have a long way to go." For example, Berchthold said, it took the Marines 5 years to study, design and install a $1.5 million drainage system to remove a shallow pool of water
Tustin Military Base
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contaminated ground under a disused firefighting pond at the Tustin base. The ponds were used to train Marine firefighters to extinguish jet fuel-related fires in the event of a jet fighter or helicopter crash. The drainage system was completed last summer. Although the area
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water has paid for the initial TCE tests and is moving forward with cleaning up contaminated groundwater off the base, agency officials say they will eventually bill the Marines for those costs. Experts estimate it could
taking up to 15 years to pump the TCE-contaminated water from the ground at a cost of several million dollars.The Navy's Brighter Than Air master plan called for three blimp bases on the West Coast - one to
north of Moffett and one south.N Congress appropriated funds for the stations in July 1941. In southern California in Orange County, a site of 1,606 acres was chosen 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 10 miles inland.
Modeled on South Weymouth and Weeksville, construction began in April 1942, three and a half miles southeast of the town of Santa Ana. The property had been cultivated for so few years that it needed to be prepared for construction.
Varying levels of trichlorethylene, or TCE, have been found in the groundwater beneath the El Toro airport and parts of Irvine. Cancer-causing TCE, a powerful degreasing agent used by the military until the late 1970s to clean fighter jet engines and helicopters, poses no immediate threat to public wells.
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, one of the sharpest local critics of the military, agrees that the Marines have begun to show "more of a willingness to listen" to concerns and complaints from neighboring cities and outside agencies.
But he predicted the Marine's "new attitude" would be tested as water and health experts act to clean up the largest groundwater contamination outbreak in Orange County history. Contamination was first suspected in 1985, when local water agencies found traces of TCE in agricultural wells near the western edge of the El Toro base.
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When the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board, a state agency, ordered the Marines to begin testing to determine how far the TCE contamination had spread from the base, the Marines refused. Marine Corps officials said it was Defense Department policy not to spend federal money to study chemicals entering private property unless there was proof they came from the military base.
“To be honest, I wish we could move faster. When people say we're slow, I think it's a fair criticism,” said Holm. “The trouble is, this is a big place, and people forget that we're like a small city.
It takes time to react.” This park was originally built as a base blimp in 1942 as Naval Air Station Santa Ana. The main feature of this area is the image of its huge blimp hangar.
It was commissioned in October of that year as one of two new blimp centers on the west coast. The other was in Tillamook, Oregon. Blimps were used to patrol the American coast mainly to watch for enemy submarines.
First 6, then 12 blimps operating from the station. The large wooden hangers were built to hold the blimps and at the time of their construction were, and still are, the largest clear span wooden buildings in the world.
These hangers were necessary when strong Santa Ana winds blew in from the desert disrupting blimp operations. The station had 6 mooring rings and its own helium production plant. After the war the status of the station was reduced as blimp operations gradually ceased.
Holm's comments, some say, represent a gradual change in the US Marine Corps' attitude toward environmental issues. Marine Corps Air Station Tustin and Marine Corps Air Station El Toro are among the largest generators of hazardous waste in Orange County, according to county records.
For nearly four decades, solvents, jet fuel, paint products and hydraulic fluids were regularly dumped - an illegal practice by today's standards - at El Toro, a 4,900-acre jet fighter and bomber training base, and at the Tustin base
nearby, site of a 1,000-acre helicopter training facility. The Air Station was established in 1942 as Naval Lighter-Than Air Station Santa Ana, a base for airship operations in support of the US Navy's coastal patrol efforts during World War II.
Source: www.tustinca.org
NLTAS Santa Ana was decommissioned in 1949. In 1951, the facility was reconstructed as Marine Corps Air Facility Santa Ana in support of the Korean War. It was the first air facility in the country developed solely for helicopter operations.
Tustin was renamed Marine Corps Air Station in 1979. Defense Base Realignment 1993 and the Closure Commission has recommended the closure of Tustin and El Toro. Both stations, in the country when they were built 50 years ago, are today surrounded by the urban growth of Orange County.
Tustin and El Toro to relocate to Miramar and other stations during 1997. The two blimp hangars are still there, ie. but it is said to require repairs costing $10 million to begin with, as well as an ongoing annual maintenance expenditure of $500,000.
Although designated a National Historic Landmark, cases of the hangar—at a cost of $5 million—are also being considered. But the Marines are changing their ways. Faced with public pressure, stricter laws and a health risk to their own soldiers, they have given environmental issues a higher priority, said Holm, director of facilities management at the El Toro base.
The corps is ready to correct past environmental wrongs and cooperate with local, state and federal regulatory agencies, which have complained for years about the military's failure to clean up its hazardous waste, he said. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Lock (locked padlock) or https:// means you are securely connected to the .gov website.
Only share sensitive information on official, secure websites. In 1991 and again in 1993, under the authority of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990, it was announced that MCAS Tustin would close. The center was operationally closed in July 1999. However, the north hangar is still used as a storage and repair center for commercial blimps.
Of the approximately 1,600 acres (6.5 km2), approximately 1,294 acres (now known as "Tustin Heritage") have been donated to the City of Tustin, private developers and public institutions for a combination of residential, commercial, educational and public recreation
. and open space uses. The remaining 300-plus acres will be donated to other federal agencies, the City of Tustin and public organizations for the same use once environmental cleanup operations are complete. After Tustin was closed by the Marine Corps in 1999, one of the blimp hangars has been designated a national historic landmark, and slated for preservation (the second is likely to be torn down
). In general, local government approved plans to reuse the property for a mix of purposes, including parkland and commercial development. “We know that people have dumped TCE and other chemicals on the ground. Our problem is how quickly they move to correct these problems.
They continue to go about their business in a very slow and orderly manner." 1951 Transferring equipment with the start of the Korean War, the Navy recommissions the base as a helicopter training facility and renames it the Marine Corps Air Facility at Santa Ana.
The Col. Lawrence H. McCulley is named chief officer. Although it is operated by the Marines, two Navy blimps call the park home. A lighter-than-air unit forms the Navy Reserve and begins anti-submarine training over the weekend.
They are the best lawyers for VA and social security processes in the United States. I had a pleasant experience from the start. You don't have to worry about anything. They do everything. They are highly qualified, so you don't have to ... By the early 1990s, MCAS Tustin was a major hub for Marine Corps helicopter flying and helicopter radar on the Pacific Coast.
Its primary purpose was to provide support services and materiel to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and other units using the base. Around 4,500 residents lived on the base at one time, and almost 5,000 military and civilian personnel were employed at the base.
In addition to providing military support, MCAS Tustin leased 530 acres (2.1 km2) to farmers to develop commercial crops. For many years, the facility was surrounded by agricultural land. However, starting in the 1980s, residential and light industrial/manufacturing areas were developed near the station.
In 1943, Santa Ana realized the need for two auxiliary facilities. In May 1943, the station sent 14 men to establish an auxiliary staff at Lompoc, California, 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles near Pt. Aguello.
A month later, a similar supply was sent to Del Mar, another support base just north of San Diego. On August 16, 1943, a VJ-8 with nine officers and 66 enlisted men arrived at Santa Ana and established a target drone school.
The next month a division of Blimp Headquarters Squadron Three was formed to support ZP-31. The Marines used Tustin as the main helicopter base on the West Coast, operating a Medium and Heavy Transport and Attack Helicopter squadron.
A small 3,000ft runway had been built between the "V" formed by the two blimp hangars (which must have created some interesting turbulence during the crosswinds), as well as a control tower had to place between them.
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Two modern hangars They were placed on the edge of the equipment blimp pad for helicopter maintenance. The station reopened during the Korean war. Blimp operations experienced a brief revival when the Navy established the two-stroke Naval Air Reserve Training Unit (NARTU) on April 1, 1951. The Marines arrived the next month and established a helicopter air facility.
West Coast blimp operations ended in June 1956, when the Navy discontinued the NANTU. In 1969, the Marines promoted Santa Ana to MCAS only to change the name to Tustin the next year. In 1975, Malcolm Forbes used a hangar for his attempt to fly a balloon to Europe.
The same year, Universal Pictures used the station for the filming of The Hindenburg. After the end of World War II, the Santa Ana NAS was decommissioned by the Navy in 1949. It was then transferred to the Marine Corps in 1951, and was renamed the Marine Air Corps Facility at Santa Ana by 1965
.It was later renamed Marine Corps Corps Air Station Tustin. When the local water distribution district officer reported at a recent public meeting, he made a case against the military as the source of the contamination.
Seated in the front row, Navy Capt. S. R. Holm Jr., dressed in a freshly pressed suit, listened intently until it was his turn to speak. When he stood, to his surprise, he had no retort, only an offer of compromise.
Santa Ana originally cost $11 million to build. Half that cost went to the two 1000 feet. wooden blimp hangar. The airport was 2,000 feet. ring diameter asphalt landing mat with six anchor rings. Although the base originally had accommodation for a total of 456 men, by March 1944, the barracks had grown to include 152 officers and 1242 enlisted men.
The maximum number of blimps present reached 14 Ships K and L. Main station GB Staggerwing operated as usual for transport. Concerned that further delay would worsen the situation, the Orange County Water District launched its own $1.2 million investigation, drilling a series of test wells near the base.
Their findings, released earlier this year, showed one large plume of TCE-contaminated groundwater nearly 3 miles long and half a mile wide that extends from the base of El Toro to a point midway between Jeffrey Road
and Culver Drive, in the area. Woodbridge area, Irvine. The studies also indicated that the plume was moving west at a rate of 1 to 4 feet per day. 1943 In October, crews completed the impressive hangars, at a cost of $2.5 million each.
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These prefabricated structures are among the largest unsupported timber buildings in the world. Each is approximately 178 feet high, 300 feet wide and more than 1,000 feet long, large enough to hold three football fields end to end.
In each hangar there are six blimps belonging to Patrol Squadron 31. The blimps, which can fly safely at low altitude and in poor visibility, perform anti-submarine patrols to protect US warship convoys. But Orange County Water District officials warn that if the contaminated groundwater, which has claimed several miles of the aquifer, is not removed, it could eventually seep into the town of Irvine's drinking supplies.
An aquifer is a pocket of porous rock near the surface of the earth where water collects. Take the Jamboree exit from Interstate 5 in Tustin, California. The former Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) is now a master-planned community called Tustin Legacy, near The District shopping center.
One of the hangars is currently open and rented out for events; the other was closed after the roof was damaged in a storm in 2013. 1953 The Korean War ends, but the use of Marine Corps helicopters establishes a prominent place for the craft in military operations.
At the same time, the Navy's more sophisticated anti-submarine equipment means that the blimps are obsolete. The lighter-than-air reserve unit releases, and helicopter squadrons fill the two hangars. This facility is the largest Marine Corps helicopter base in the country.
1945 At the end of World War II, the Navy transforms the base into a target aircraft training school under the Naval Air Technical Training Command. One hangar is used for aircraft storage, but several blimps remain on the field.
The evidence was troubling: A large pool of underground water, stretching over 3 miles from the edge of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to the center of the Irvine residence, was contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical.
"A big part of our job is education," Holm said. “We have 10,000 Marines here, many of them young kids from the hills of West Virginia or Oklahoma. At home, they don't think to go back out and drop a few cans of motor oil into the stream.
For them, it's an acceptable practice."
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